Gritty, cheeky, sincere: How Martin Parr captured the spirit of Merseyside

Dear readers — we hope you had a joyous weekend and, for those of you that took part in the Santa Dash, we’re sending well wishes today to your aching feet…

Catch up and coming up:

Last week, Abi’s hard work investigating the disgraced charitable enterprise, Big Help, finally paid off. After revelations that Knowsley Foodbank — a charity with close links to Big Help — had siphoned over £195,000 into private companies connected to Peter Mitchell and his Labour councillor partner Colette Goulding, Liverpool Labour announced Goulding had been suspended pending an investigation. 

That news was then picked up by the BBC over the weekend, who credited The Post for our stories about Big Help over the past two years.

Coming up this week, we have more scoops from Abi as she strives to end 2025 with a bang. We also have another brilliant and heartfelt weekend read from David Lloyd — we can’t wait to share that one with you soon.

Thanks to our sponsor of today's edition, Incogni. To claim your 55% off and get control of your data, click here.

The big story: How Martin Parr captured the spirit of Merseyside

Top line: Renowned British photographer Martin Parr has died aged 73. While his vivid images of seasides and crumbling monuments were taken worldwide, it was in New Brighton where he first developed his fascination with the colourful and crude. 

Born in Surrey in 1952, Parr became fascinated with photography after watching his grandad in his makeshift darkroom, developing images under red and amber lights. In the late 1960s, his family relocated to the Wirral, and it was here – specifically in New Brighton, Wallasey, Liscard, and Birkenhead — that Parr became fascinated with capturing the realities of everyday life.

“When I discovered [New Brighton], I got very excited; I was attracted to its litter and energy and I knew then that I would do a project about it,” he told AnOther Magazine in 2015. He quickly began shooting amateur images of church groups, street corners, and holidaymakers in the town, before leaving home to study at Manchester Polytechnic in the early 1970s. 

Following university, Parr garnered critical acclaim for his vivid photographs of religious communities in West Yorkshire — including his first collection in the Calder Valley, The Non-Conformists. However, by the early 1980s Parr decided he wanted to shoot his next set of photographs in the place that first inspired him — returning to New Brighton in 1983 to create one of his most famous works: The Last Resort. 

Upon his return, he discovered that New Brighton had declined sharply since his childhood — struggling with deindustrialisation and a decline in investment. Despite this, it still drew in tourists from across Merseyside, often families from Liverpool seeking cheap holidays by the sea.

He became enamoured with this tension between joy and decay; crumbling sea walls, fluorescent arcades and crowds of sunburnt tourists featuring heavily in his work. Yes, New Brighton might not be a picturesque seaside town — but that was all part of its charm.

In The Last Resort, mothers push prams under sweltering heat, children brandish neon inflatables and eat melting ice cream next to overflowing bins. All the photos embrace colour — Parr used flash and richly saturated film to make the photographs feel hyper-vivid and hyper-real. 

Despite our modern appreciation of Parr’s imagery, in the 1980s his collection provoked much debate. Critics accused Parr of mocking the working class or romanticising poverty. His fans argued he was showing the real Britain: a nation navigating Thatcher-era decline while still trying to enjoy life’s simple pleasures.

Today, Parr’s work — including The Last Resort — is considered to be instrumental in shaping the trajectory of British visual culture. Artists often cite his imagery as an inspiration — photographer Ian Weldon said: “Before I understood Martin [Parr]’s work, photography was purely a commercial endeavour. After I understood it, the world around me was never the same again.”

After news of his death over the weekend, art critic Peter Dench put Parr's significance best: “He captured the world and Britain in particular and all its contradictions, from the cheap, the cheerful, the tragic, the aspirational and the self-deceiving. He did so with a clarity that was simultaneously funny and uncomfortable. That’s why he mattered and why he will continue to matter.”

Your Post briefing

Wirral is set to receive a large wodge of cash to improve transport in the area, including developing a new Woodchurch railway station and implementing cycleways in Birkenhead. The exact funding figure is yet to be determined, but the money is part of a £1.6bn investment package agreed with the government earlier this year, with projects distributed across the Liverpool City Region. Elsewhere in the combined authority, plans are afoot for a rapid transit system (usually an electric railway), linking Liverpool city centre, the airport, Anfield and Hill Dickinson stadium, as well as regeneration projects in Bootle and Huyton. 

“Serious concerns” have been reported about a Knowsley children’s care home operated by a private company. Warnings were raised by an Ofsted inspection which found extensive failures with management and the care of two young people living there, including not recording when children were restrained. Ofsted inspectors wrote that the experiences of the two children at the home were "extremely poor", and that management shortages resulted in "some poor safeguarding practices". The facility is operated by a private company named Jupiter Child Care Services Ltd, with two directors — Shirley Brady and Jodi Bridgen — who also recently incorporated a new real estate firm named Jupiter Properties NW Ltd. The Knowsley care home has now been served multiple compliance notices and will be closely monitored to ensure improvements are met within agreed timescales.

Victims of poison pen letters sent by former Labour councillor Gerald Woodhouse have shared their experiences with the BBC. Michelle Langan recounted how she received typewritten letters to her home address from 2021 onwards, which made allegations about her family, inner circle and included personal attacks on Langan herself. Langan had “her suspicions” that the sender was in the Labour party and using access to internal membership lists to wage a hate campaign. She raised complaints to the party but heard nothing back. Another BBC interviewee and recipient of the letters told the broadcaster that they complained to then-mayor, Joe Anderson, but alleged no action was taken. A high-profile poverty campaigner, Woodhouse, was “treated differently” to other Labour members, claims the interviewee. However, in October 2025 — five years after the poison pen notes started — Woodhouse pled guilty to harassment without violence. He’s currently awaiting sentencing. 

Post Picks

🎤On Sunday, the Choir with No Name will be joined by the Asylum Link Merseyside Choir and PSS Wellbeing Choir for a festive concert raising money for the homeless. It starts at 7pm at The Tung Auditorium — details here.

📚On Friday, The Post is heading to St-Michael-in-the-Hamlet Church in L17, for an evening of horror with local author Ramsey Campbell. We’ve just released a last tranche of tickets for those who missed out previously. £7 for free supporters and non-members, £6 for paying subscribers (check previous briefings for a discount code). 7.30pm start. Buy tickets here.

🎄From this Sunday, GINIFICENT returns to St George's Hall with a brand new production of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. Last year, we sent Laurence to review the production — check out his take here and make sure to grab tickets for this weekend here.

Poem of the week

What're you going to do for it?

They'll go to their Nan's for a fuss;

Mine? Sadly no longer with us,

Think fondly of them by fire lit.

Teach them to wind up the bobbin!

His girlfriend from Europe is here,

She "did not get" the beef last year,

Or why Dad tweets like a robin.

Are you sure we'll have enough mince pies?

Tearing through town in queasy bouts,

in hopes "it's perfect" will jump out.

Jewels sparkle, new bauble eyes.

— Christmas in Britain by Ryan Murphy

(Inspired by ‘The Trees’ by Philip Larkin)

Ryan Murphy is a singer-songwriter and painter currently based in Chester. His poems and short fiction have been published by the Singapore-based blog, Eunoia Review, as well as Liverpool’s Bido Lito! Magazine and Urbanista Magazine.

Ryan’s paintings can be viewed on Instagram (@ryanmurphytube), and his lyrics can be heard by searching for his band, Hooton Tennis Club.